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Broiled Grouse, Orange Sauce
Cut off heads and feet from two nice fat grouse, split open through back, draw, cut out spinal bones and thoroughly wipe them, envelop in towel and neatly flatten with a cleaver. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil, teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, repeatedly turn birds in seasoning, arrange on a double broiler and broil over brisk fire for ten minutes on each side. Remove, arrange on a hot dish over six freshly prepared toasts and serve with cold orange sauce separately.
Filippini's method is spatchcock-and-grill, written for a coal or wood fire and a hinged wire broiler. The whole thing turns on not overcooking the breast, which in a wild bird goes from juicy to liver-dry in about two minutes.
- What the bird is"Grouse" in an American book of this period usually means ruffed grouse, roughly 1 to 1.25 lb dressed; a British red grouse is nearer 12 to 14 oz. Neither is easy to find outside the game season, and rarely in a supermarket. Game dealers stock them in season, and two quail, a partridge or a 1 lb poussin will take the same treatment.
- Draw and split"Draw" is to gut; "cut out spinal bones" is spatchcocking with the backbone removed. Kitchen shears do it faster than a knife. The flattening with a cleaver through a towel is to get an even thickness so the legs and breast finish together.
- The double broilerA hinged two-sided wire grill that clamps the bird flat and lets you flip it in one motion. A grill basket does the same job. Over a "brisk fire" means a hot bed of coals, or a gas grill run on high.
- Ten minutes a side is too longThat timing suits a slow, uneven coal fire. On a modern grill or under a broiler, a spatchcocked grouse needs roughly 5 to 7 minutes a side. Wild grouse is dark, lean meat and is often served faintly pink; if you want it cooked through, take it to 165F in the thickest part of the breast.
- Oil and season lateA tablespoon of oil, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper is plenty for two birds. Salting well ahead draws moisture to a surface you want dry for browning; turn the birds in the seasoning just before they go on the fire.
- Check for shotWild-shot birds carry pellets and occasional bone splinters. Run a finger over the breast before cooking and warn anyone at the table.
- The toast is structuralSix pieces of plain toast under two birds are there to catch the juices, in the old game-bird manner. Cut them to fit the platter and do not butter them heavily.
- The orange sauceThe recipe gives no formula, only "cold orange sauce" served separately. A cold game orange sauce of the period is essentially a Cumberland type: orange juice and zest, redcurrant jelly, a little port and mustard, cooked down and chilled. Serving it apart keeps the skin crisp.
- YieldTwo birds serve two generously, or four as a first course if each is halved.
Grouse arrives in Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book (1906) as a restaurant bird: Filippini spent much of his career at Delmonico's in New York, where wild game was a staple of the autumn card. The pairing with orange is older than the recipe and comes from the French game kitchen, where the bitter Seville or bigarade orange was used to cut the richness of duck and dark-fleshed birds; served cold alongside a hot broiled bird, it works much as redcurrant jelly does with venison. What dates the page most clearly is the assumption of abundance. Commercial market hunting in the United States was closed off by state and federal law in the decades around this book's publication, which is why a dish a Delmonico's cook took for granted now depends on a licensed game dealer or a hunter.